| The purpose of the study was to explore the state of the art and feasibility of statistical analyses in police organizations. The state of the art determination was to provide information about the extent to which police agencies utilize statistical analysis. The issue of feasibility of statistical analyses for police agencies related to the practicality and value of advanced analyses for those agencies.;The methodology of the study is best characterized as exploratory research. Research questions were used, rather than hypotheses, because of the absence of a well developed theoretical framework. In order to obtain data about police statistical use, a mail survey was sent to 347 police agencies located in fifty states. The size of these departments ranged from 86 to 22,900. Data collection and analysis questions within the survey were guided by the research questions which identified the constructs for the measures and the relationships to be analyzed. An overall response rate of sixty percent was obtained with this survey. Fifteen primary measures and ten composite measures, based on the research questions, were drawn from the survey, and were used in the analysis. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate procedures were used in the analysis of the survey data.;The best description of the state of the art of statistical use in police agencies is that very little analysis is undertaken, with only simple procedures being used with any regularity by the respondent agencies. While some extremely minimal use of descriptive and miscellaneous procedures was found, inferential, nonparametric and scaling procedures showed virtually no use by the agencies. Other limitations on the agencies relative to the use of advanced statistical techniques were the failure to utilize external data sources, and the fact that the analyses that were performed by the agencies were not integrated or coordinated. This failure to integrate and coordinate these analyses efforts relates to the issue of feasibility and appears to be the result of the narrow vision and crisis orientation of police management generally, along with traditional divisions of labor within agencies. Whether police agencies can overcome these constraints will determine whether advanced statistical techniques will in fact be feasible. |
